Embattled Zimbabwean Whites Look to Get out

HARARE, April 19 (Reuters) - Less than a day after a land-grabbing mob
murdered their friend Martin Olds, Carol and Russel Franklin queued at the
British High Commission on Wednesday to regain British citizenship.

"We don't want to leave. We do want to stay but we have family to consider.
It's not looking safe any more," Carol Franklin told Reuters soon after
collecting application forms for a British passport at the commission (embassy)
in Harare.

"We lost a friend yesterday," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

The Franklins were among some 280 predominantly white Zimbabweans who
streamed to the commission early on Wednesday to reclaim British citizenship or
make enquiries about asylum in the face of rising violence over a land crisis in
which two white farmers have been killed by blacks in the past four days.

Two members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and a police
officer have also been killed over the past fortnight as political tensions have
risen.

Government officials in Mozambique have appealed to the Zimbabwean farmers to
seek shelter there, saying the government will gladly provide them with land.

The governor of the central Mozambican province of Manica, Felicio Zacarias,
was quoted by local media as saying between 400,000 to 500,000 hectares of
commercial farming land can be made available to the Zimbabwean white farmers.

Zacarias said he regarded the Zimbabweans as "the best farmers in sub-saharan
Africa."

Last week, officials in neighbouring Zambia were also quoted as inviting
Zimbabwean white farmers to invest there. Zambia has huge tracts of arable land.

CATTLE RANCHER WAS SHOT AND BEATEN TO DEATH

Cattle rancher Olds was found shot and beaten to death on Tuesday at the back
door of his homestead near Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo after a four-hour
siege by a mob that had invaded his land.

"Right now two deaths, two white farmers have been killed. I don't know
whether this is gonna escalate and move into the suburbs. It's going to be a
difficult one to put breaks on," said John de Wet, a businessman who said he was
seeking British residence in the wake of the violence.

"The ex-combatants are flamed up, they are fired up," he said.

He said that President Robert Mugabe was not doing enough to stop veterans of
the country's 1970s independence war from violent invasions of hundreds of
white-owned farms that have pushed Zimbabwe to the brink of anarchy.

De Wet, who said he employed 100 black people, said his mother was born in
Britain and he felt he should be able to get British asylum if the need arose.

"I have to make sure that my family are protected...I don't know how far this
is going to escalate," he said.

Last month British Foreign Office Minister for Africa Peter Hain said that
London would take in up to 20,000 whites entitled to British nationality if the
situation deteriorated further.

British High Commission officials in Harare barred reporters from the
immigration offices but a Reuters reporter who went inside earlier saw over 40
whites waiting to either hand in passport forms, collect passports or enquire
about emigration.

HUNDREDS SEEK DEPARTURE

Within hours, the number of people who had gone through the doors of the high
commission had risen to about 280, according to an entry register.

"People here are panicking," said a woman who declined further comment,
saying all she wanted was to go and join her daughter who was working in London.

"I was blinded in the war here but decided we were going to stay and make a
life here. But after 20 years it looks like it's not possible any longer,"
Russel Franklin said before leading his distraught wife away.

Zimbabwe marked 20 years of independence from Britain on Tuesday as Mugabe
branded white farmers "enemies of Zimbabwe."

Mugabe has not ordered a stop to the invasions and the police have not heeded
a court order to remove the squatters.

Zim Christians must not sheepishly accept misrule

Tafirenyika Makunike,
Harare.

EDITOR — Statistically speaking, it is
said that Zimbabwe is over 70 percent Christian but there are probably less than
two percent Christians in politics.

The local political landscape is littered with carcasses of confident
tricksters and fraudsters whose early warning sign of corrupt tendencies is
distributing beer to the electorate for the purpose of soliciting votes.

Christianity is not a Sunday morning feeling; it is a practical religion and
it is about accepting the lordship of Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and Life.

A Christian is identified by standing for the truth whatever the
circumstances. I suggest those who are Christians and belong to political
parties do a manpower evaluation to see how many Christians they are presenting
in the next election and, if they are very few, I suggest they do something
about it.

The business of politics is too valuable and precious to be left in the hands
of pagans.

I know most Christians think politics is a dirty game, but as one pastor
said, it is a beautiful game being played by evil people. We need to go up the
"political mountain" and evict the fraudsters who have infected it.

The practicality of Christianity has got to be demonstrated to be believed.
God did not just say he loved the world; he demonstrated it by making the Word
flesh in the lordship of Jesus and by living among us. The greatest gospel we
can ever preach is by being "doers of the Word" (James 1:22).

We need strategic thinkers in Parliament, not strategic dozers who will only
open their eyes when a TV camera is passing. We do not need to be praying for
evil men to rule us properly for the next five years when we could be praying
for God's kingdom to come right here on earth.

Current consensus is that a good MP is one who scrounges around for
second-hand sewing machines and distributes them in his/her constituency. As a
result a second-hand mentality is pervading the whole nation.

Myles Munro says the "poorest man in the world is the man without a dream"
and the most frustrated man is the man with a dream that never becomes a
reality. We have been systematically murdering the dreams of this nation and the
sooner we realise that the better.

Admitting that we have a problem is the first step towards solving it. Please
do not sing "Lord I am coming home" because I believe God will let us go nowhere
until we have done this.

If our young and qualified people think the only thing they can do just to
get by is looking after dying old people in London while our own old people are
dying here with token care, I say that is a problem.

If our political leaders say our education system is the best while shipping
en mass their own children to overseas schools, then that is a problem.

If we say our health delivery system is the best yet we are off to Cape Town
at the slightest cough, that is a problem.

If 1 400 of us are dying every week of AIDS and all we read about are people
dying of Zimbabwean diseases called "short" and "long" illnesses, then it seems
we have perfected and institutionalised the art of lying.

We have become a nation of speechifiers. We speechify about small businesses
being the engine of growth yet we allocate nothing in the budget.

We speechify about resettling our people yet we allocate nothing in the
budget to put up infrastructure and train the new farmers.

The first sign of decay in a nation is too much kwasa-kwasa dancing when we
should be mourning our dead dreams. We spend all our little resources defending
some kwasa-kwasa dancing sorry example of a leader (God, my heart grieves!).

Christians need to stop petty arguments such as who has the most charismatic
pastors, whose church has more signs and wonders, who has the best following . .
.

We are here to do God's will and not this bubblegum and porpcorn gospel I
hear. The Bible says where there is no vision the people will perish.

Unfortunately, candidates who normally present themselves for election are
the mediocre, so below I have put down a list of people I think have sufficient
vision which various communities can consider and approach for service in
Parliament:

I would stop the "government process" of printing money since this is the
main cause of inflation.

I would also use my degree in economics to stop scaring investors away
through unwarranted racial attacks.

And through my broadcasting company ZBC, I would give an actual date for
elections and promise the electorate that the elections will be free and fair
and whoever wins will smoothly take over in the House.

I would also assure the people that Tobaiwa Mudede is not going to rig
elections to help Mugabe win.

ZANU PF is scared

Musha Uya Waita
Mamvemve, Bulawayo.

EDITOR — If the Movement Democratic
Change (MDC) is not a threat at all as we have been told by the ZANU PF big
wigs, why is it that all of them, from President Robert Mugabe himself through
to "Madzibaba" Border Gezi to Chen Chimutengwende, the minister of
"explanations", cannot even string five or six words without mentioning the
party or its leader Morgan Tsvangirai?

Of course, the good thing to come out of
this is that since the ZANU PF propaganda machines like the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation or Zimpapers won't allow MDC adverts, the party is
still getting free publicity courtesy of the decaying old guard. MDC
ndizvo!

South African newspaper editorials have begun criticising
the government's apparent refusal to take a firm regional lead on developments
in Zimbabwe.

They have also been examining the wider political and economic implications
and asking searching questions about what the future holds in the wake of
President Mugabe's comments on Independence Day.

Under the headline "Zimbabwe: Time for Mbeki to declare where he stands", the
Financial Mail said that, as the crisis in South Africa's neighbour deepened,
its capacity to spill over into other countries in the region was increasing
proportionately.

It contrasted Pretoria's failure so far to condemn the situation in Zimbabwe
with its decision to intervene militarily in Lesotho in 1998 after weeks of
political turmoil and civil unrest.

"Awesome vistas come to mind", the paper
wrote.

"Major disruption of commercial farming and loss of foreign exchange earned
through the sale of tobacco; hunger as food supplies slow to a trickle amid
rising prices for the little that is available; and growing anger in the cities
as enraged residents there take to the streets to protest against the
conspicuous wealth of Zanu-PF notables."

More trouble in store

"These glimpses into the future serve as warnings that even graver times may
lie ahead, not least the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy and the degeneration
of SA's [South Africa's] most important trading partner into a lawless state
where judges are ignored and political differences are settled by violence," the
Financial Mail wrote.

It noted the possibility that South Africa could experience similar land
invasions to those occurring in Zimbabwe.

"Yet, in the midst of these developments, Mbeki has refused to speak out
publicly against Mugabe's contempt for the rule of law. Instead he has
maintained a discreet public silence and opted for quiet diplomacy to express
whatever misgivings the government may have.

"But his silence may be misinterpreted as condonation, particularly when SA's
1998 military intervention in Lesotho is recalled. "

What price the SADC?

Business Day took a look at the regional implications of the crisis in
Zimbabwe.

It said recent developments there should be "setting off alarm bells"
regarding the effectiveness of the organisation designed to bring about conflict
prevention within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The paper pointed out that President
Mugabe has nominally chaired the SADC body on Politics, Defence and Security
established in 1996.

The body's draft protocol calls on the SADC to intervene when instability
arises from the breakdown of law and order and to use diplomacy to pre-empt
conflict within states and promote the development of democratic institutions
and practices.

"These commitments are in stark contrast to the veil of silence among the 13
other SADC member states regarding the apparent suspension of the rule of law
and the use of violence and intimidation in the run-up to elections in
Zimbabwe," the paper said.

"Where are the voices of Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi... and
others? And what of the Organisation for African Unity?"

'Tiptoeing around the problem'

The Natal Witness also called on Pretoria to condemn events in Zimbabwe.

"The world is weary of watching the anarchic collapse of country after
African country. It is troubled and exasperated by the spectacle of Mugabe
destroying Zimbabwe's economy by his wild utterances, and, most recently, by his
encouragement of invasions of white-owned farms by war veterans," the paper
said.

"Instead, until this week, South Africa,
in the persons of President Thabo Mbeki and former president Nelson Mandela, has
tiptoed around the problem, not approving, not condemning, perhaps hoping it
would go away."

"Zimbabwe is a powder keg whose explosion could be disastrous for the region.
It is South Africa's responsibility to face this fact and take steps to halt
Mugabe's runaway madness.

"It's time for South Africa to express strong criticism of events in Zimbabwe
and to seek ways of controlling the damage."

Zim slides towards rule by decree

Opposition parties fear postponement of election

ZIMBABWE appears headed for a state of
emergency that would allow President Robert Mugabe to delay a general election
scheduled for next month, according to opposition officials.

With two white farmers killed in three days, squatters led by veterans of the
1970s guerrilla war against white settler rule were roaming the countryside,
invading and burning farms.

The opposition said government supporters have also stepped up violence
against its members since a speech by Mugabe this week denouncing whites in the
country as "enemies of Zimbabwe".

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said in a statement that
a number of its members had been arrested, others assaulted and its meetings
disrupted around the country.

"There is an attempt to seal off the rural areas to the opposition. There is
a reign of terror being waged for electoral gain," MDC secretary-general
Welshman Ncube said.

Mugabe's government, which has ruled for 20 years but suffered a humiliating
defeat in a constitutional referendum in February, would face a fight for
survival if the general election goes ahead in May.

Many opposition figures believe the two-month-long crisis over land ownership
will allow the President to declare emergency rule, which would allow him to
postpone elections for up to a year.

"He is pushing us into some sort of state of emergency, unless he finds a way
of restoring law and order," said Heneri Dzinotyiwei, president of the
opposition Zimbabwe Integrated Programme.

Speaking on Zimbabwe's 20th anniversary of independence on Tuesday, Mugabe
all but declared war on white farmers for their opposition to his plans to seize
their land without paying compensation.

"Our present state of mind is that you are now our enemies because you really
have behaved as enemies of Zimbabwe," he said in unscripted remarks.

Thousands of government supporters have squatted on white-owned farms since
late February, backing Mugabe's plans to seize land he says was stolen when
Zimbabwe was colonised by the British in the 1890s.

The murder of two farmers and the burning of some farms near the capital
Harare have put Zimbabwe's minority whites in a state of panic. Some families
have abandoned their farms to seek refuge in towns.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to Mugabe by telephone on
Tuesday, urging him to defuse the tension.

The Commonwealth's secretary-general has urged the authorities in Zimbabwe to
exercise restraint in the crisis over land reform, which has tipped the country
into a spiral of racial violence.

Don McKinnon said in a statement released yesterday that the mounting tension
was "a matter of growing concern" and not conducive to free and fair elections.

But political analysts believe Mugabe is sponsoring the farm invasions to
divert public attention from a severe economic crisis on which the opposition
has managed to build a strong campaign.

Britain said yesterday it was encouraged by Annan's intervention in the
deepening crisis and said Mugabe appeared to have agreed to "return to
dialogue".

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who has sought greater international pressure
on Mugabe, said in a television interview he phoned Annan late on Tuesday to ask
him to step in.

Mugabe blames Britain for Zimbabwe's land crisis, saying it has been refusing
to honour its historical responsibility to pay for land reforms needed to
correct colonial injustice.

He says Zimbabwe's 4 500 white farmers occupy about 70 percent of the
country's best farmland.

But critics say Mugabe has so far distributed to his cronies many of the
farms he has acquired for peasant resettlement.

Zimbabwe appears headed for a state of emergency that would allow President
Robert Mugabe to delay a general election scheduled for next month, opposition
sources fear.

Their warning came as Mr Mugabe's supporters, who claim to be veterans of the
1970s guerrilla war against white rule, continued their attacks on commercial
farmers and opposition party-members that have left at least nine dead.

The opposition said government supporters have stepped up violence against
its members since a speech by Mr Mugabe on Tuesday denouncing the "enemies of
Zimbabwe".

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement that a
number of its members had been arrested, others assaulted and its meetings
disrupted around the country.

"There is an attempt to seal off the rural areas to the opposition. There is
a reign of terror being waged for electoral gain," said movement
secretary-general Welshman Ncube.

Mr Mugabe's government, which has ruled for 20 years but suffered a
humiliating defeat in a constitutional referendum in February, would face a
fight for survival if the general election goes ahead in May.

Many opposition figures believe the continuing crisis over land ownership
will allow the President to declare emergency rule, thus enabling him to
postpone elections for up to a year.

"He is pushing us into some sort of state of emergency, unless he finds a way
of restoring law and order," said Heneri Dzinotyiwei, president of the
opposition Zimbabwe Integrated Program.

Speaking on Zimbabwe's 20th anniversary of independence on Tuesday, Mr Mugabe
all but declared war on white farmers for their opposition to his plans to seize
their land without paying compensation.

"Our present state of mind is that you are now our enemies because you really
have behaved as enemies of Zimbabwe," he said in unscripted remarks.

He said their resistance to "reform" had "exposed them as our enemies, not
just political enemies, but definite enemies in wanting to reverse our
revolution and our independence."

Speaking from an English-language script only minutes before, Mr Mugabe had
expressed regret for the deaths of the two farmers. He then used the Shona
language part of his address to congratulate war veterans for invading white
farms. The widening contradictions in Mr Mugabe's public statements are leading
some observers to speculate that the 76-year-old former freedom fighter is at
worst developing schizoid tendencies, at best responding in an ad hoc and
irrational manner to his increasingly desperate situation.

With the Zimbabwean economy rapidly crumbling and his efforts to boost
support by making whites the scapegoats manifestly failing, many of Mr Mugabe's
actions now seem like the emotional flourishes of a gambler on the slide.

"Rationality is not his strong point right now," said Professor John Makumbe
of the University of Zimbabwe's politics department.

"He is driven by fear. Fear that he will lose forthcoming elections. Fear of
the war veterans. Fear he will be moved from office."

With the police refusing to help beleaguered whites, the Commercial Farmers'
Union has urged its members not to resist squatters, but in several cases
clashes with squatters have been started by black farm workers fearing for their
jobs.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's president vilified
white farmers as ``enemies of our people'' Tuesday, hours after dozens of gunmen
besieged a farm and killed a white rancher during the worst spasm of violence in
two months of land occupations.

On the country's 20th anniversary of independence from white rule, President
Robert Mugabe accused the farmers of ``mobilizing, actually coercing'' their
workers against his rule and wanting to turn the clock back to the colonial era.

Tuesday's violence on several farms and Mugabe's stepped-up rhetoric
escalated the standoff that began in February when landless blacks started
occupying white-owned land. Squatters now occupy more than 900 farms.

Mugabe has backed the squatters, saying they are veterans of Zimbabwe's
independence war protesting against inequitable land distribution in a country
where 4,000 white farmers own a third of the productive farmland.

But many of the squatters, who have begun wearing ruling party T-shirts in
recent days, are far too young to have fought in the war.

Opposition politicians say the occupations are an effort by Mugabe to scare
white farmers and their workers into abandoning the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, which could pose a major challenge to Mugabe's 20-year rule
in parliamentary elections expected to be called next month.

``Violence and intimidation are being orchestrated by Mugabe and his party
hierarchy,'' said David Coltart, a party official. ``They are going for the MDC
support base'' in rural areas.

Early Tuesday, 40 to 100 attackers armed with AK-47 assault rifles drove onto
a farm in western Zimbabwe and besieged the home of cattle rancher Martin Olds.
The 42-year-old rancher was killed in a three-hour gunbattle, Coltart said. The
attackers then burned down his house.

Olds' death was the fourth killing linked to political violence since
Saturday, when two MDC members were killed in a firebombing and farmer David
Stevens, a known MDC supporter, was slain by ruling party supporters. Five of
Stevens' neighbors were also severely beaten.

Also Tuesday, attackers wearing ruling party T-shirts rampaged across a
white-owned farm 25 miles north of Harare, torching tobacco barns and workers'
dwellings. They also trashed and looted the hilltop farmhouse of David Stobart
and his wife, Gillian, who fled safely to the capital.

Neighbors of Olds and Stobart were evacuating to nearby towns, said the
Commercial Farmers Union, which represents most of the white farmers.

The white owner of a small farm near Harare also was taken hostage Tuesday.
MDC member Kevin Tinker was assaulted and released after being taken to a nearby
ruling party office, said a neighbor, Hamish Turner.

Farmers union officials on Monday accused the government of arming the
squatters with submachine guns.

Mugabe's verbal assault on white farmers during an interview with state-run
Zimbabwe Broadcast Corp. was a marked hardening of his stance, even from the
televised anniversary speech he had made just minutes before.

During that speech, he said he would work to broker a compromise between
farmers and the squatters, a stand that seemed to echo what farm leaders said he
told them in a meeting Monday.

But Mugabe portrayed the meeting very differently in the interview.

``I told them it required real transformation on their part in a positive way
for us to accept them as allies wanting to live side by side. Until then we will
continue to regard them now and in the future as enemies of our people,'' Mugabe
said.

The president accused white farmers of working to defeat a failed
constitutional referendum that aimed to speed up the seizure of white farms for
distribution to landless blacks. He said white opposition ``exposed them as our
enemies, not just political enemies, but definite enemies in wanting to reverse
our revolution and our independence.''

Immediately after the failure of the Feb. 16 referendum, the squatters began
moving onto white-owned farms.

Farm union leaders were ``angered and frustrated'' by Mugabe's remarks, said
David Hasluck, director of the union.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke Tuesday with Mugabe, who told him he
would meet with squatter and farmer leaders again Wednesday, Annan's spokesman
Fred Eckhard said. Annan deplored the reported violence and urged Mugabe to ease
tensions over land reforms. The Wednesday meeting could not be immediately
confirmed by Zimbabwean officials.

Mugabe's government had canceled military parades, tribal dances, sports
displays and other celebrations for Tuesday's anniversary because, it said, it
wanted to save money to aid flood victims. However, it is widely believed that
Mugabe feared political protests or violence during festivities.

Zimbabwe is suffering from its worst economic crisis since independence with
more than 50 percent unemployment and 70 percent inflation.

Revolt looms in government ranks as . .
.

Mugabe's election strategy splits party

Staff Reporter - The Financial
Gazette

ZIMBABWE'S embattled President Robert
Mugabe risks a revolt in his government over a high risk election ploy combining
seizure of white-owned farms and intimidation of the opposition, officials and
analysts say.

They say the strategy is sponsored by a small number of Cabinet ministers
close to Mugabe and an equally tiny but powerful group in the security services.

"A majority of the people in the government don't support what is going on,
and if things continue at this pace, we are going to see a confrontation in the
government ranks over this problem," one senior government official said.

"Many of them are ashamed of what is going on and these people have been
expressing their dissent by keeping quiet. But there are signs this is
changing," he added.

Government sources said there was a heated Cabinet debate last week over the
continuing invasion of white farms by supporters of the ruling ZANU PF party,
led by former guerrillas in Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war.

That meeting, which was held while Mugabe was away in Cuba at a developing
world economic summit, led Vice President Joseph Msika to order an end to the
invasions and to urge ZANU PF leaders to restrain supporters from intimidating
the opposition.

ZANU PF supporters have occupied at least 500 farms in the past two months
and waged a campaign of violence which has claimed several lives, including two
white farmers. Dozens of farmers have been forced off their land, threatening a
key sector of the country's economy.

Ahead of parliamentary elections expected in May, ZANU PF youths and
supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been
clashing around the country in what Mugabe has described as an evil strategy by
the MDC.

Many others blame the violence on government supporters.

Political boss

When Mugabe returned home from Cuba on Sunday he said he would not order the
veterans off the land, and said his supporters should hit their opponents so
hard they would never forget who was the political boss.

"They have provoked a lion with a slap, and they will be devoured," he said
to wild cheering from his supporters.

Analysts say the 76-year-old former guerrilla leader's militant supporters
hope intimidation will help ZANU PF ward off a strong challenge by the MDC,
especially in urban areas, in parliamentary elections set for May but likely to
be held later.

"His calculation is that he will not have it easy if all these issues are
allowed to dominate the election, so he has chosen his own campaign platform,"
said political analyst Masipula Sithole.

"But it is a high risk strategy because it does not have popular support in
the party or the country," he added.

"It is divisive and open to challenge because some in his own party believe
ultimately it will backfire," Sithole said.

Some of Mugabe's lieutenants turned on him in February when he suffered a
crushing defeat in a referendum on a draft constitution which critics said was
designed to entrench his rule.

They told him he was the party's greatest political liability, and urged him
to retire. But a party source said he had declined, saying ZANU PF's chances of
surviving the elections would be worse without his leadership.

"He is behaving like an uncrowned absolute monarch. He is not even taking
wise counsel from some of his own senior officials, and those are the seeds of
self-destruction," said political analyst Emmanuel Ma-gade.

Magade, a law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, said Mugabe was
desperate but had painted himself into a corner.

"He has always played to the gallery of the gullible but that gallery is
getting empty," he said. —Reuter

What price freedom?

FOUR precious lives have been cruelly
cut short in the past week, the latest victims of Zimbabwe's widening anarchy.

Martin Olds, David Stevens, Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika died because
they dared to hold views different from those of their political foes.

The four join at least two others, including a policeman on duty, sent to
their deaths in the past three weeks.

The blood of these innocents, spilled on the eve of Zimbabwe's 20th
independence anniversary, is a sobering testament of how a once proud nation has
crumbled in every sense of the word.

Their deaths were predictable in the highly poisoned mood Zimbabwe has been
plunged into and yet they need not ever have happened.

Instead of sparking retribution, let these tragic deaths spur all Zimbabweans
— black and white — to solemnly rededicate themselves to the ideals for which
another 50 000 lives needlessly perished in the 1970s campaign for this
country's freedom.

Those ideals — the permanent banishment of the oppression of man by man and
the ushering in of an era of palpable freedom and tolerance of divergent views —
must steadfastly propel the people forward even at this darkest hour, fortified
in the knowledge that they hold their destiny in their own hands.

Let the people not vent their anger over these murders through senseless acts
of counter-violence, but through an overwhelming vote for peace and freedom as
they boldly reclaim their sovereignty in the coming elections.

Let them unmistakeably and forcefully make the point that violence, from
whatever quarter and for whatever purpose, is not acceptable and will not be
tolerated.

Never again should Zimbabweans allow anyone or any organisation, whatever
their political credentials, to play this supreme overlord over their lives.

They should send an unambiguous signal here and across the globe that only
they are in charge — and permanently — and that only they will empower and
disempower anyone who takes them for a ride so crude and cruel.

For the record, Zimbabweans must not so much blame the perpetrators of the
evil deeds of the past three weeks but those who have inspired the misguided
minds of the young and jobless to launch into such desperate and destructive
tendencies.

It is the promoters of violence who must bear the greatest responsibility for
these dastardly acts — and they know it.

In time, justice and fairness should prevail. They always do, but for now
many will be forgiven for asking: what price freedom?

We urge Zimbabweans to pause and digest the anguished cry from the Catholic
bishops and other heads of Christian churches sent out this week.

"The laws of the country that protect people from abuse and physical assault
must be enforced. The courts of the land must be respected. The law enforcement
agencies must do their duty without fear or favour," they stated.

UNDP says ZANU PF dominance killing Zimbabwe's economy

Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S political landscape in
which Parliament has largely been dominated by the ruling ZANU PF party is to
blame for inaction by the government to administer painful economic
prescriptions agreed with international donors, according to a study funded by
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The UNDP report, expected to be officially made public next month, says
Zimbabwe's political system does not punish policy-makers for failing to meet
set economic targets.

It cites the domination of ZANU PF as one of the chief causes of the
profligacy by the government which it says had caused Zimbabwe to incur a
national debt of more than $240 billion.

The ZANU PF-dominated Parliament, whose term expired earlier this month ahead
of general elections later this year, is accused of rubber-stamping policies
which have cost the country crucial economic aid.

"We have argued that the political set-up in Zimbabwe does not force
difficult decisions to be made and has an inherent tendency to encourage
inaction," the UN report, a copy of which is with the Financial Gazette, said.

The report is being prepared by local and international consultants and is
co-funded by the UNDP and the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development.

Zimbabwe is mired in its worst economic crisis in two decades blamed largely
on mismanagement by the government of President Robert Mugabe, in power since
independence from Britain in 1980.

The southern African country, once hailed as one of Africa's beacons of hope,
has seen its economy slide during the past three years as the government
experiments with various half-baked economic policies.

The government has often discarded some policies mid-way to appease a restive
populace, which has been angered by rapidly deteriorating living standards.

The UNDP report however dismissed claims by the government that the economic
prescriptions administered by international financial institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were not suited to meet
conditions of developing countries.

It said the failure of the Western-backed economic reforms was caused by the
half-hearted implementation by the government rather than the design of the
policies.

"The problem does not lie in the absence of ideas but rather in the
implementation of those ideas. This raises the fundamental question of why
government's commitment to its own policies is so weak," the report said.

Mugabe has personally made public his dislike of the World Bank and the IMF
which he says prescribe policies that destabilise developing economies.

The IMF, the main backer of Zimbabwe's economic reforms since 1991, last year
suspended aid to the country after the government failed to meet set economic
targets.

The IMF also questioned the cost to the fiscus of Zimbabwe's military
involvement in the 20-month-old civil war of the Congo, where Harare says it has
been spending US$3 million a month to back military ruler Laurent Kabila against
rebels.

The sour relations with the IMF have also cost Zimbabwe potential aid worth
more than US$6 billion from several Western governments and international donors
such as the World Bank and the European Union.

Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe of inciting war against whites

WASHINGTON — Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe is trying to start a race war in a desperate bid to divert
attention from the crumbling economy before a May election, the leader of the
nation's biggest opposition party said this week.

As Zimbabwe marked the 20th anniversary of its independence from Britain,
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the
embattled Mugabe had branded white farmers as traitors in a last-ditch attempt
to rally the mainly black population behind his plan to grab their land without
paying compensation.

"By targeting white farmers, by promoting the racist angle, he is hoping that
the whole nation will support him on this dangerous path," Tsvangirai said in an
interview during a visit to Washington.

"Fortunately the whole of Zimbabwe doesn't see this as a racist issue. They
see this as political opportunism on the part of Mugabe, trying to raise this
land issue in the next election," he said. "And yet he had 20 years to resolve
this whole issue, so people have seen through this strategy."

Mugabe, 76, a former guerrilla commander who has ruled Zimbabwe since its
independence in 1980, said in an anniversary speech in Harare that white
farmers, who have resisted his attempts to seize their land, have behaved as
enemies of the state. He refused to call off thousands of black "war veterans"
who have occupied at least 500 white-owned farms.

His comments came just hours after news that white farmer Martin Olds had
been killed by farm invaders. It was the second such killing since the farm
occupations began four months ago. Last weekend white farmer David Stevens was
abducted from his home, brutally beaten and shot dead.

Amid the spreading violence, two officials of the MDC, including Tsvangirai's
driver, were killed at the weekend when their car was firebombed by veterans.

"I believe the responsibility for the current state of affairs lies squarely
on President Mugabe himself," said Tsvangirai. "When the farm invasions were
first on the table as part of his plan, he was publicly condoning lawlessness
and anarchy."

"It's a very shattering experience that people are getting killed. Some of
them are very close to me — blacks and whites. It's not about race. It is not a
race war."

Critics of Mugabe's rule say he has previously handed some of the best land
appropriated by his government to political cronies, while presiding over an
economy racked by corruption and mismanagement. The result has been falling
wages, soaring inflation and fuel shortages that have angered his people.

Sixty five percent of Zimbabweans surveyed in recent polls made clear they
want a change of government, but Mugabe has become increasingly erratic as he
clings to power.

Since the farm invasions began Mugabe has ignored court rulings, refused to
order the police to remove the squatters and recently dissolved parliament as a
precursor to the elections, which are supposed to be held sometime in May.

"I think there are those in Zimbabwe who realise that Mugabe is acting as a
lone ranger," said Tsvangirai. "I think he has just sidelined his Cabinet,
parliament has been dissolved, so he's acting alone."

"I think that we may have an election. But whether it's going to be free and
fair is questionable." —Reuter

Bulawayo - Ranchers in
Zimbabwe's western Matabeleland Province were evacuating some farms and
expecting new attacks after one of their neighbours was shot and killed when war
veterans overran his farm, a farming official says.

"We have had reports that certain people have been targeted," Mac Crawford,
president of the Commercial Farmers' Union in Matabeleland told AFP.

"We have moved women and children into town and the men are laagering up in
groups of four or five on one farm."

Crawford said the union had received information, in the wake of the killing
Tuesday of rancher Martin Olds, that two groups of government supporters had
moved into the area specifically to kill white farmers.

"This is not random," he said. "It is an orchestrated campaign which could be
stopped at any time by one man" -- President Robert Mugabe.

"You're sitting like a lame duck waiting for someone to come and kill you,"
John Rosenfels, a third-generation Zimbabwean rancher, told AFP.

"The point is we see ourselves as Zimbabweans, but you've got to start asking
yourself 'Are we wanted here?'"

Crawford said Mugabe's remarks on the 20th anniversary of independence
Tuesday, in which he labelled white farmers "enemies", should have removed any
doubt over who was behind the escalating violence.

Thousands of squatters led by veterans of the country's independence war have
invaded hundreds of white-owned farms in the past two months, and two farmers
have now been killed in the space of four days.

Crawford said, however, his members were not planning on leaving Zimbabwe.

Mugabe says the squatters are simply reclaiming land stolen by colonialists,
but critics charge that the war veterans are being used as storm troopers to
intimidate the opposition ahead of elections due next month.

The president accuses the farmers of supporting the Movement for Democratic
Change, a labour-backed party which is tipped to present his government with its
biggest challenge after 20 years in power. - Sapa-AFP

Buckingham Palace Red-Faced on Mugabe Note -Paper

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - Buckingham Palace is trying to distance itself
from an embarrassing congratulatory message which Queen Elizabeth sent to
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe this week, the Times reported on Thursday.

The newspaper quoted palace sources as confirming the message was delivered
by the British High Commission in Harare on Tuesday -- the 20th anniversary of
Zimbabwe's independence from Britain and also the day that a white farmer was
killed.

The sources insisted the British Foreign Office was responsible for writing
and sending the note, the Times said.

Neither Buckingham Palace nor the Foreign Office could be reached immediately
for comment.

The Times said the message was a routine one which the queen sent on national
days to all countries which had diplomatic relations with Britain.

It said the timing of the message had sparked an "instant furore" among
Zimbabwe's whites. "Her Majesty should know she has let us down badly," one
farmer, Tim Savory, was quoted as saying.

Thousands of veterans of the guerrilla war to overthrow white minority rule
in the then Rhodesia have invaded hundreds of white-owned farms in the past two
months, demanding back land they say the British stole.

Two white farmers have been beaten and shot to death, and many others have
been attacked and forced to flee their farms or sign over land to the squatters.

Swapo Quashes Zimbabwe Motion

Windhoek (The Namibian, April 19, 2000) - Swapo yesterday took advantage of
its heavyweight presence in the National Assembly to smother the first motion of
the Congress of Democrats (CoD), which was aimed at drawing parliament's
attention to crisis-ridden Zimbabwe.

Tsudao Gurirab, the CoD Secretary General, proposed that the Assembly
"congratulates the people of Zimbabwe on their victory against the forces of
colonialism and racism, 20 years ago".

Swapo members of parliament immediately shouted at Gurirab questioning his
credentials to bring such a proposal to the National Assembly.

Some Swapo MPs asked: "Who are you? You have not even spent a month in
parliament."

Gurirab continued unperturbed, calling for a quick solution to the land
problem; for the Assembly to express "deep concern over the disregard for the
rule of law in Zimbabwe"; and to state "concern" that the problems in Zimbabwe
could spill over to the rest of the "already volatile SADC [Southern African
Development Community] region".

Gurirab asked the National Assembly to support "constitutional and democratic
rule ... in that country and urge authorities to create the necessary conditions
for free and fair elections".

Swapo MPs immediately indicated they would quash the motion, and when Deputy
Speaker of the National Assembly Willem Konjore called for a vote, only five
opposition party members - the four CoD MPs present and Kosie Pretorius of
Monitor Action Group - supported the proposal.

More than 30 Swapo MPs voted against it. The DTA-UDF coalition abstained.

Gurirab sat back with a smug look as Swapo MPs told him he was "trying to
look for cheap points" and that he should "join the Zimbabwean parliament" if he
wants to discuss Zimbabwe.

Swapo has a close ties with the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic
Front (Zanu-PF), the country's ruling party, and President Sam Nujoma is
probably President Robert Mugabe's closest international political ally.

Several Journalists Threatened

Paris (Reporters sans frontieres, April 19, 2000) - In an 18 April 2000
letter to Minister of Home Affairs Dumiso Dabengwa, RSF expressed concern about
the deterioration of press freedom in Zimbabwe on the twentieth anniversary of
the country's independence. RSF urged the minister to ensure that journalists
can work freely and safely in Zimbabwe.

"We wish to remind you that Zimbabwe has ratified the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, Article 19 of which guarantees press freedom,"
added Robert Menard, RSF's secretary-general.

According to the information collected by RSF, several journalists have been
physically or verbally attacked by "veterans", former fighters in the war of
independence, since the beginning of April. On 16 April, during a meeting with
President Robert Mugabe in Harare, many journalists were assaulted by Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF ruling party) militants who
brandished placards proclaiming: "That's enough with CNN, BBC, and SABC lies". A
few days earlier, in an occupied farmhouse near Centenary (150 kilometers north
of Harare), Alexander Joe and Rose-Marie Bouballa, a photographer and journalist
with Agence France-Presse, respectively, and a cameraman with the British news
agency Reuters were threatened by some fifty men armed with machetes and iron
bars. Their leader declared: "If you come back here, we will take your equipment
and your car, and we will keep you for many weeks if necessary." He also
prohibited them from taking pictures.

On 6 April, in another farmhouse, Nyasha Nyakunu, and Tsvangirai Mukwazhi,
editor and photographer with the privately owned "Daily News", respectively,
were detained for two hours by ZANU-PF youths armed with iron bars. They
threatened the journalists and seized their two cameras, identity cards and
press cards, accusing them of being "pro-White people" (see IFEX alert of 7
April 2000).

PROPERTY owners are fleeing Zimbabwe
in increasing numbers in the wake of mounting political violence, leaving a
market with properties which have no takers.

Real estate firms this week said the market was awash with properties because
of an upsurge in the number of sellers while most buyers were taking a
wait-and-see position.

"We are now getting up to 10 properties brought up for sale every day instead
of the usual maximum of only two. The reason is mainly that the owners are
getting very nervous about what is happening in the country and are leaving,"
said James Fox, a spokesman for a leading Harare-based real estate agency.

Situation reversed

The market usually has more buyers than sellers but the situation has now
been reversed.

The analysts say this has been caused by mounting political violence and the
illegal occupation of private farms by veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war
with the full support of President Robert Mugabe.

"Normally when we get two properties to sell, there would be 10 buyers. But
we are now getting as few as two buyers for more than 10 properties we are
getting a day," Fox said.

Properties on the market are mainly houses from low-density suburbs occupied
by the rich as well as farms and plots.

Jill Thomas, an official of another Harare estate agency, said her company
was getting buyers for properties valued at up to $2 million but virtually none
for properties with values higher than this.

No buyers

"More properties are coming onto the market and there are no buyers for those
in the higher bracket," she said.

Except for a few clients who had soft loans such as bank employees, there
were very few customers coming to the market to buy property.

Another property expert with an international real estate company told the
Financial Gazette that Zimbabwe's rapidly deteriorating political and economic
climate had unnerved many property owners, especially foreigners with investment
in Zimbabwe.

"Despite the huge amounts of money invested in the property sector, many
owners are not willing to take chances. They are beginning to feel very insecure
when there is a total breakdown of law and order in the country," he said.

Property rights

"The sellers' reaction is very normal because they cannot wait until they
lose their properties. Buyers know that security is very important in this
sector so they cannot just rush to buy at a time when property rights are not
protected."

For the past two months, veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war have
been on a rampage occupying nearly 1 000 mainly white-owned farms across the
country.

In the past month, the High Court has twice ordered the police to evict the
invaders but the police and Mugabe have refused, saying it was a political issue
and that police had no resources to enforce the court orders.

Another property agent said: "When police can no longer protect the country's
citizens from being attacked and having their properties seized and the
government starts crafting pieces of legislation to take properties without
paying anything, then investors will rush to dispose of these properties before
they lose them."

The agent was referring to a constitutional amendment passed by Parliament
two weeks ago authorising the government to seize white-owned farms without
paying compensation to resettle peasants.

Apart from the farm invasions, security concerns have been heightened by
politically-motivated clashes between supporters of the ruling ZANU PF party and
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as they campaign for general
elections tentatively scheduled for next month.

At least six people have been killed in the violence, the latest being at the
weekend when two supporters of the MDC were bombed by alleged ZANU PF followers
and a farmer was shot dead by the veterans occupying his land.

HARARE, April 19 (Reuters) - President
Robert Mugabe, on the ropes after 20 years in power, is forcing Zimbabwe's small
white minority to choose between their livelihoods and their politics.

Political analysts say Mugabe's support for the occupation of
white-owned farms and his silence on the violence against white farmers is a
desperate strategy to make whites abandon the fledgling Movement for Democratic
Change.

``The farm invasions, the violence against the opposition, the
endless diatribe against the West are all part of his programme to win the
elections,'' said Emmanuel Magade, a law lecturer at the University of
Zimbabwe.

Political sources say he is signalling increasingly
clearly that he will not call his supporters to order until whites agree to back
his ruling ZANU-PF against a new opposition.

Mobs of pro-government
supporters, led by veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war, have invaded
hundreds of white-owned farms in the past two months, shooting and beating two
farmers to death.

They have burned homes and crops and driven many
farmers off their land, while a parallel campaign in the countryside by ruling
ZANU-PF party militants has left at least five opposition supporters, including
a pregnant woman, dead.

Mugabe has fired up his supporters by describing
the white farmers as ``enemies of Zimbabwe'' for bankrolling the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and opposing his plans to seize their land
for blacks without paying compensation.

``His position is not about
farmers, it's about power. He believes the MDC would not be a problem for his
government without the farmers,'' political commentator Alfred Nhema said.

The MDC has built a strong support base and analysts say it stands a
good chance of toppling Mugabe's 20-year-old government with a campaign based on
allegations of mismanaging the economy.

Mugabe is accused of driving the
economy to a 20-year low by pumping national resources into a political
patronage system aimed at sustaining his rule.

Unemployment has doubled to about 50 percent since Mugabe came to power,
interest rates are around a record 70 percent and inflation soared to a record
70.4 percent last October.

On top of that, the country is battling with
acute fuel and foreign currency shortages while poverty has risen to 70 percent
from 60 percent 10 years ago.

Key Western donors have suspended aid to
Zimbabwe over differences on economic management, especially its costly
deployment of a third of its army in the war in the Congo.

COUNTRY
``HELD TO RANSOM''

But Mugabe believes the West is trying to strangle
the economy to pave the way for an MDC victory in the parliamentary elections
provisionally set to take place in May.

Although his own presidential
term does not expire until 2002, analysts say Mugabe's position would become
untenable if his government lost the parliamentary elections.

Nhema and
Magade believe Mugabe will try to tie growing demands to defuse the rising
violence against white farmers to their withdrawing support from the MDC.

``Mugabe is holding the country to ransom, telling the world: 'If you
don't let me do what I want, I will blow it up','' said Masipula Sithole, one of
the country's leading political commentators.

``He is saying: 'Dare me
and we will fight to the finish', and he is trying to keep peace in his own
ranks by saying, 'This is about our survival','' he said.

Sithole said
Mugabe might also be trying to push the country towards a state of emergency
which would allow him to delay elections for up to a year and to crush the
opposition.

Political analysts say although Mugabe might be persuaded by
mediators such as Nigeria to soften his stance on the land issue, his paramount
interest was to win power.

The government published a document last week
which it said came from the MDC, outlining a campaign of violence and economic
sabotage.

But the MDC dismissed it as a forgery, and an excuse to ban it
or go for a state of emergency.

Although officials say there are
rumblings over Mugabe's strategy, party sources say he is confident he can carry
the day with the support of a small but powerful group of supporters in the
ruling party and the security
services.